Christmas Pajamas

The annual Christmas jammies have been made and I even got them finished before Christmas Eve!! No patterns, I've just been using their clothes and modifying them as needed (adding seam allowance, extra length etc.) and it's been great! Jenny's pajamas were my first efforts to serge knits and oh heavens now I see what the fuss is about! I'm having issues with my tension for serging woven fabrics but it was dreamy for the knits, and the results were delightfully tidy! My efforts to get everyone in their new pajamas was not met with such great results, but everyone is cute and happy and I'd rather remember it this way anyway...and Clover puppy...always always photo bombing her tiny humans. (If you look on the bookshelf behind them you can see another photo of them in their Christmas pajamas, I think it was the year I was pregnant with Nomi?) Talking more about the origin of this tradition over on Spark today!

Better late than never- Thanksgiving

My goodness, how is it so far into December already?? I just can't believe what my calendar (and children) are telling me...a week until Christmas? Really? We have been having a lovely time though, staying busy in that good way that doesn't really ever involve leaving the house except to brave Costco for groceries every few weeks. We had a surprisingly early first snow this year (the day before Thanksgiving!) and they enjoyed every moment of it for the few days it lasted. It wasn't without drama though because we lost power almost all day... of course normally this wouldn't be a huge deal, but I'm sure you can imagine the frustration of losing power the day before you are to host your first Thanksgiving? It made for a very busy Thanksgiving morning but everything went beautifully anyway. 

We had (my sister) Eliza and Thomas over and we had such an amazingly wonderful time. Thanksgiving has been a holiday in desperate need of reclaiming for me and this year was just what was needed. Food that the kids aren't allergic to, loving family, lots of laughter, fabulous sangria and apples to apples late into the night. Please let every year be like this one! 

I haven't been able to take down the drink station we set up...it's so fabulously handy and the desk was just always cluttered anyway so now it's really working much more efficiently. We had leftovers for days afterwords and made the most amazing soup with leftover turkey and the broth made from the carcass. Jenny and I spatchcocked it so we had tons of amazingly rich broth thanks to that back bone. I wasn't sure how turkey broth would go, maybe there was a reason people usually stick with chicken (other than price per bird of course)? But oh my goodness, it was so wonderful. I think my new favorite Thanksgiving tradition will be making this soup the weekend after! 

I have so much catching up to do over here, so be looking for more posts soon! 

Halloween Costumes

I have never been much of one for Halloween, as a kid I didn't like the scary parts, and honestly when you don't eat the candy it kind of looses the charm. That all aside, Halloween has sort of become one of my favorite holidays because of the fabulous fun of planning costumes with my kids and challenging myself to make them just what they want. This year we had Medusa, a Mutant Shark, and a Turtle, and oh my goodness what fun! Jenny's costume was simple, green long-johns and play silks with rubber snakes tied into her dreads, and some seriously fabulous scary snake makeup. We used this organic face paint, then carefully pulled a fishnet stocking over her head before applying a heavy coat of blue and bronze shimmery makeup...(seriously I have no idea how this is a normal makeup color pairing for any skin tone, but as it was exactly what we needed I'm glad they make it!), crazy green and gold eyes and orange lips and she was done. 

Bobby's costume was actually quite simple, felt was on sale 50% off and is so easy to work with that his costume was totally done in an hour. I used the really heavy sew-in interfacing for the teeth so they would be a bit firmer, but it was really just a matter of making his picture into a costume. I want to make another more traditional looking shark because it would be such a great dress up piece, don't you think?

 {note the "bite" out of the second dorsal fin, because of course mutant sharks have two... to go with their eye patches...}

 Nomi's turtle costume was a very last minute decision, (think Halloween morning) because he kept changing his mind. Thankfully I had green velour on hand for making waldorf-style gnome dolls, and I had the perfect thrifted afghan for the rest of it. I don't seem to have a picture of the shell, but I'm sure you can picture it. I based the pants off of the pants he was wearing, it's such a great simple way to make children's pants, I could do a tutorial if anyone is interested? I made him a simple jacket inspired by the one in The Children's Year, although I had to modify it for the fabrics I was using and how big his sweet head is. But it turned out adorably and he stayed warm and toasty all night. I want to add some fasteners to the jacket so he can continue to wear it, the pants are already a new favorite.

We gathered with my brother's family and and made the usual rounds for trick or treating, although the next day the candy disappeared before anyone broke out in eczema from all of the corn and chocolate. Thankfully nobody seemed to notice! The fun of dressing up and going around is really where it's at anyway. Now it's November and I'm excited to dive into holiday planning and making, I'm getting a late start this year, but for some reason I'm much calmer than I usually am. Hopefully that will hang around for the rest of the year. Oh! And a new month means new contributors to the Spark! photo project, this month we have two wonderful mamas joining us and you wont be sorry you stopped by! 

{Christmas Moments}

So, so, so, much good life happening in this little spot. Lots of lazy sleepy mornings, cocoa sipping, family visits, cozy days watching it snow (!!!) and lots of wondering how such little people can stand to be out in such bitter, windy cold. The kids really, really loved their farm mat. It's almost finished...I just ran out of secret time and secret spaces...but it has already been put to very good use. I'll get pictures soon, I can't recommend this project enough! Today we are having one last lazy day before that post-holiday-cleaning frenzy kicks in... The only goals for today involve knitting with my Christmas yarn, getting a shower, and making burgers and fries for dinner. Of course there will be lots of nose wiping, toe warming, book reading, and chocolate sneaking too. The most wonderful time of the year indeed. 

{Thank you all for your sweet comments! Joe made it home safe and sound and we have been loving every minute of our time with him. We have him for about two and a half more weeks!! I'm not thinking about after that yet.}

Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year!!

Linking up with SouleMama

{trick or treat}

There is a chance that these are some of the worst costume photos you will see in blog land this year...the costumes however, are pretty fantastic (if I do say so myself!). Jenny requested a peacock...after a quick browse on pinterest I was sold on the idea of a tutu, it's just the basic "no sew" variety on elastic. We took several little feather bunches that were on sale (thankfully) at JoAnn's and I took them off of their wires and stitched them onto some sheer gold ribbon to be her tail. Bobby's spider legs are just halloween tights filled with plastic shopping bags, then strung together with thread (and by the end of the night at least one safety pin!)... Nomi (who is frequently called Domino by his sister) was, what else? A domino. And the cutest, plumpest domonio I've ever seen. My parent's house is in a great neighborhood for trick or treating, so we all meet up there and the cousins (and younger aunts and uncles!) all go together. It's also actually my sister's birthday so there are always at least a few birthday related things to do too. All in all it made for a fun (if chilly!) night, of fun for everyone. We don't make a huge deal about halloween, just good (not too scary please!) fun for all and a few days of much treasured candy treats. 

I'm going to be trying NaBloPoMo (National Blog Post Month) and post every day (ok, probably not Sundays) this month...we have travel plans later in the month so we'll have to take each day at a time, but I have missed this place and sharing with everyone over the past few weeks so it's good to be back, and I hope you'll join me!

~Mackenzie

Six

Happy Birthday to my sweet "baby" girl! I can't believe it's been six years...looking forward to the next six!! (Off to get ready for a make your own pizza party, chats with Daddy, and lots of six-year-old snuggles! More on the outfit and crown in the next few days!)

Easter Pictures...and nothing much to say

Keep an eye on Jenny posing in the background ;)